To verify whether the rumors were true, some sects indeed invested effort, such as the Artifact Refining World's third-ranked sect, the Yanbao Sect, which had lost in a treasure presentation competition and, like ordinary sects, had only twenty members enter.

At this time, a group was politely bidding farewell to another group. After the guests left, a disciple named Guang Haoyou, who was leading the group, turned his head to look at an older man lounging on a large rock, leisurely drinking from a wine gourd.

Seeing his sect members looking at him, the drinking man raised his gourd as a toast from afar and flashed a brilliant smile showing his white teeth, a smile that seemed capable of melting snow and ignoring the harsh surroundings. He was quite handsome, though his languid demeanor made him seem out of place compared to others who entered the Divine Fire Domain.

He didn't seem like he was here to compete, but rather to enjoy himself, wandering and playing wherever he went.

This man was named Li Hongjiu. It was said that his mother, while escaping Assassins with a swollen belly, had hidden and given birth to him in a wine vat, staining the water in it red with her blood. Thus, she named him Li Hongjiu, a quite arbitrary choice.

No one knew if it was due to being born in a wine vat or the randomly chosen name, but Li Hongjiu had a strong fondness for alcohol.

Of course, he wasn't to the point of alcoholism.

It might have had nothing to do with his name, because the elder of the Refining Heaven Sect on this trip also had 'Jiu' (wine) in his name, Qin Zhijiu, and he wasn't particularly fond of drinking either.

Guang Haoyou seemed like the leader of the Yanbao Sect group, but in fact, he was not the leader of the sect on this trip; the leader was Li Hongjiu.

Appointing Li Hongjiu as the leader was, indeed, opposed by many in the Yanbao Sect, especially since only twenty people entered this time, which weakened their force searching for Divine Fire, and having an irresponsible leader was even more unacceptable.

But Li Hongjiu truly posed a dilemma for the Yanbao Sect.

Born into a major Refining Sect like Yanbao, he was lazy and not seriously dedicated.

You could say he wasn't dedicated, and yet, his talent for Artifact Refining was extremely high. Others were merely too lazy to learn and put the skills to use. When he actually made an effort, his skills could frustrate anyone.

What was worse, he also had the highest cultivation talent among his generation of disciples, not just high, but extremely high. He was acclaimed as the foremost individual in the Yanbao Sect's eighteen-hundred-year history.

This foremost individual referred to cultivation talent, not cultivation level.

How high was his cultivation talent?

Once, when his fellow disciples encountered a danger during an outing, he stepped forward and blocked an attack from a Human Immortal realm expert barehanded, causing the latter, wary of his depth, to retreat and effectively saving everyone. The shock this incident caused among the Yanbao Sect's higher ranks was unimaginable to outsiders.

Later inquiries revealed that during his High Martial Small Success Realm, Li Hongjiu had found the sect's Cultivation Method unsatisfying, so he created his own.

The shock this brought to the sect leaders can be imagined.

Since he had such a good Cultivation Method, the sect asked him not to keep it to himself, arguing that he had his achievements today thanks to the sect, and it should be shared.

He didn't hide his method; it was just that his self-created Cultivation Method was profoundly mysterious and elusive, relying entirely on one's comprehension. Aside from him, no one else could master it, and to this day, it remains untouched in the Yanbao Sect's archive.

Logically, with such high cultivation talent, it wouldn't matter if he didn't want to refine artifacts; just cultivating well could be beneficial to the sect.

In any case, despite repeated punishments by the sect, they were still willing to provide him with all possible support.

If he wanted to pursue Artifact Refining, the sect would fully support him, providing any materials needed for it.

If he didn't want to refine artifacts and preferred to improve his cultivation, the sect would also fully satisfy his needs for cultivation resources.

This was a treatment other disciples couldn't even dare to imagine.

But the result? He was someone without ambitions, indifferent to prospects and destiny. In his own words, "I'm quite content with my current life; why should I strive and struggle?"

No matter how many times his master's rod broke in teaching, it was strange not to see him kneeling at his master's door to accept punishment every couple of weeks.

By the way, his master was Qu Wuming, the Sect Master of Yanbao.

At that time, it was his talent that had prompted a scramble to take him as a disciple.

However, since taking on this disciple, Qu Wuming felt somewhat disheartened and lost the interest to take on more disciples, making Li Hongjiu his closed-door disciple and the so-called 'grandmaster uncle' for many in the Yanbao Sect.

Just because of this disciple, the Yanbao Sect's Sect Master had several times jumped in frustration, shouting about expelling him from the sect, but it was all just shouting. Faced with such a disciple, throwing him out was unbearable, but keeping him was infuriating, a real headache.

"Can you believe it? How could the Sect let him enter the Divine Fire Domain? But the situation was quite special this time, and the Yanbao Sect could only send twenty disciples to search for the weakened power of the Divine Fire," murmured many as their eyes repeatedly fell on Li Hongjiu.

They forced themselves to look away, only to find themselves reluctantly gazing back for scrutiny.

For starters, he was the strongest among the High Martial disciples; in a battle, he wouldn't just stand by and watch his fellow sect members die—he would definitely lend a hand.

Moreover, Li Hongjiu's talent for Artifact Refining was exceptionally high. You couldn't make him spend all day refining, but exerting some effort in competitions outside the Divine Fire Domain was no problem at all.

With these considerations in mind, the Yanbao Sect decided to let him participate.

Initially, the Sect Master of the Yanbao Sect worried that this fellow would be lazy and would cost him a lot of effort to manage, but as soon as he heard that he was going to check out the Divine Fire Domain—a place he had never been—he immediately became interested and agreed outright.

This made Qu Sect Master a bit annoyed; if this fellow had put just a bit more effort into cultivation, his cultivation could have broken through to the Human Immortal Realm at least twenty years earlier, avoiding the risk of entering the Divine Fire Domain.

But then he thought again, if he absorbed the Divine Fire, overall, his cultivation could increase even faster. Could it be that this fellow had been too lazy to improve his cultivation all these years just to wait for this day? After all, one couldn't enter the Divine Fire Domain after reaching the Human Immortal Realm.

Many had suspected this afterwards, but most had dismissed the idea; that guy had always been this way since childhood.

After entering the Divine Fire Domain, the trouble that the Yanbao Sect had worried about finally happened.

Within the Divine Fire Domain, Li Hongjiu lost his curiosity quickly and found the place dull. Realizing he had to search a barren land day in and day out, he promptly lay flat and told everyone, "I'm just here to make up the numbers, do what you need to do."

He did have a place he was interested in, however. He had always wanted to see the 'Wuming Forbidden Land.'

He scared the Yanbao Sect disciples quite a bit, and they desperately held him back, not just keeping a close watch over him but also binding him with moral obligations.

Certainly, disciples like Guang Haoyou began to get headaches, experiencing first-hand the Sect Master's pain and worrying endlessly about this sect uncle.

Finding the Divine Fire was already tough enough, and having him around was a burden; who could understand such pain?

What was worse, after finding the Divine Fire laboriously, while everyone eagerly contributed it to this sect uncle for absorption, he refused, claiming he didn't need such external items. "I know you guys want to absorb it more than I do," he said.

He simply refused and instead designated it to Guang Haoyou, stating that it would be more valuable if Guang Haoyou absorbed it.

Guang Haoyou was nearly moved to tears and wanted to thank his ancestor eight generations back—he had wanted to absorb it, but the sect had clearly decided that this sect uncle was the first choice for absorbing the Divine Fire, with him to follow, and had reminded him repeatedly.

He understood the reason; the sect uncle was the one most likely to help the Yanbao Sect secure victory.

But if he absorbed the Divine Fire and failed to secure victory, how would he explain it to the sect later? His selflessness would be seen as selfishness, and the spittle of criticism could drown him; how could he then hold his head high in the sect?

Moreover, he had already guessed why Li Hongjiu refused to absorb the Divine Fire, to let him, Guang Haoyou absorb it, so later the responsibility of securing victory could be pushed onto him, allowing Li Hongjiu to carefreely run off to the 'Wuming Forbidden Land.'

If this sect uncle was determined to leave, who could stop him?

Thus, a bizarre scene not seen by other sects occurred within the Yanbao Sect: pleading, wiping tears, kneeling—a group begging Li Hongjiu to absorb the Divine Fire. Eventually, out of desperation and no options left, they even had to drag him out to see the elders.

Ultimately, Li Hongjiu reluctantly absorbed three petals, which was all the Yanbao Sect had managed to find.

Not doing the work, reaping the benefits, and even doing so begrudgingly while consistently dragging others down—what kind of sect would want that? The disciples of the Yanbao Sect were furious and felt like hitting someone.

In short, each time they found the Divine Fire, no one could get happy about it, just sighing and lamenting.

After the guests had left, Guang Haoyou quickly moved to the indolent, drinking Li Hongjiu and asked, "Junior Sect Uncle, did you hear? It's confirmed. The Refining Heaven Sect is indeed looking for Shi Chun and the others; that means, the legend is true—they really have a way to quickly find the Divine Fire."

Li Hongjiu also helplessly replied, "Why bother with so much, I said three petals of Divine Fire should be enough. It should be almost enough to win, what more do you want?"

Guang Haoyou held his head in pain, sighed, and said, "Sect Uncle, please stop messing around, okay? They have hundreds, hundreds of Divine Fires, what will you use to win?"

The other sect members, some sighing, some looking down helplessly, others shaking their heads slightly—in short, none seemed willing to speak anymore.

Li Hongjiu glanced at everyone's reaction, raised his head to take a swig of alcohol, and then while breathing the aroma of liquor said, "Whether it's hundreds or thousands, the principle remains the same; at most, thirty-six can be absorbed, aren't there only thirty-six kinds of Divine Fire? Moreover, from my point of view, even if they found hundreds of Divine Fires, it would be quite difficult to gather thirty-six different kinds. So, we still stand a chance. In artifact refining, too much help without sufficient mastery won't necessarily lead to perfection."

In distress, Guang Haoyou said, "Sect Uncle, if reasoning could solve problems, why did we even come here?"

Li Hongjiu chuckled, lifted his liquor gourd to toast, looked up leisurely at the sky, mouth meeting the spout of the gourd, and responded, "You're right, whatever you guys decide, I'll go along with it."

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